Global survey shows rising women’s participation in cooperatives

An online survey conducted by the International Labour Organization and the International Cooperative Alliance shows 75 % of survey respondents feel that women’s participation in cooperatives has increased over the past 20 years. Read more

10-13 November: Global Conference and General Assembly of the ICA in Turkey

Online registrations for the International Cooperative Alliance Global Conference and General Assembly to be held from 10- 13 November 2015 have opened. During the same week, the International Cooperative Alliance will organise together with the International Labour Organization the research conference “Cooperatives and the World of Work” on 9-10 November. Read more

Spreading the cooperative word through audiovisual media: the first edition of Festcoop

FestCoop, the International Cooperative Film Festival started out as a way of bringing together people’s experiences working for cooperatives in the social and solidarity economy online, through audiovisual media. Colombia will be the first country to host the event in 2016. Read more

The Mondragon Corporation of the future: the democratic debate begins

The largest industrial cooperative group in the world, Mondragon Corporation, is starting a large-scale debate involving its 120 cooperative enterprises. Over the next two years there’ll be an internal debate as to how cooperatives can remain autonomous and self-managed at the same time as introducing tighter control of solidarity funding. Read more

A COOPerative marque for all

The global Cooperative Marque was launched in 2013. The intention was to develop a new visual identity that all cooperatives in all sectors could use alongside their own corporate identity, a logo which would replace the ‘rainbow flag’ which had been the symbol of the movement for almost 100 years. Today more than 1000 cooperatives in 91 countries have successfully applied to use it. Read more

Cooproute, building European heritage

The European Route of Cooperative Culture, grouping already 80 destinations, was presented in Brussels on 24 February. The conference participants expressed the reason why cooperatives are an inspiring model in offering a sustainable tourist experience, while disseminating the cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.  Read more

Pope Francis receives Confcooperative representatives and underlines the importance of cooperatives

On 28 February 2015 in Rome, at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the re-establishment of CECOP Italian member organization Confcooperative in 1945 after the fall of Fascism, 7000 Confcooperative members had an audience with Pope Francis. Read more

The Fourth European Forum on Social Entrepreneurship to be held in Bulgaria starts today

Cooperatives and social enterprises from several European countries and representatives from the European Union will met for the fourth time in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, to participate in the European Forum on Social Entrepreneurship from today 26 until 29t March 2015. This event combining a fair, conferences and workshops is co-organised by CECOP and the National Union of Worker and Production Cooperatives of Bulgaria. Read more

Green Economy and Worker Cooperatives

A report recently published by the Andalusian Federation of Worker Cooperatives (FAECTA) in Spain provide evidence that the green economy offers new business opportunities and job creation for worker cooperatives in this region, including sustainable tourism. The study reflects that the philosophy behind the green economy (equitable distribution of wealth, equity and economic justice; gender equality, etc.) matches with the cooperative DNA, especially in rural areas. Read more

Transitional worker cooperatives: a new tool for employee buyouts

The transitional worker cooperative is an initiative introduced under the Social and Solidarity Economy French Bill, which came into force in July 2014. Its aim is to help business acquisitions that fall under the worker cooperative umbrella, and to provide a new tool for employees undertaking a company takeover. Read more

A federal law for the solidarity economy in Argentina: the debate begins

The Institute for the Promotion of a Solidarity Economy, in Argentina, spent February putting the wheels in motion for a series of 35 forums taking place from March onwards. Bringing together the region's cooperatives and unions they will provide an opportunity to make headway on a definitive federal law for a solidarity economy. Read more

Intercooperation on both sides of the Atlantic

Manuel Mariscal, president of CICOPA, visited Uruguay, together with a delegation of representatives of the Andalusian cooperative movement (in Spain), to build bridges of innovation, internationalisation and intercooperation in the sectors of care, education, and ICT, among cooperative enterprises of Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. Read more

New York City council approves a law favourable to worker cooperatives 

On 18 March, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Intro 423. Under this new law New York City will now issue annual reports on the amount of goods and services it purchases from democratic, worker-owned businesses and recommendations on how to lower barriers for worker ‪cooperative participation in city procurement. Read more

Women's ‪cooperatives in Morocco: the double in number in 5 years

The number of women's ‪cooperatives in Morocco has doubled in the last 5 years, from 738 in 2008 to 1,756 in 2013. The artisans' cooperative Afra, is an example of how cooperatives can empower women through the Argan oil production. Read more

Social needs could increase worker and social cooperatives in China

In China the lack of cooperative legislation has made the reestablishment of cooperatives difficult. Now, apart from the 2006 “Farmers Specialized Cooperatives Law", there is still no legislation on other types of cooperatives nor any basic cooperative law. However, owing to the pressure coming from social needs, worker cooperatives and social cooperatives have been established in a number of places. Read more